Public Health Law and Health Leadership in the United States: What can Australia learn?

In 2016, life expectancy at birth in the United States fell for the second year in a row. Since his inauguration in 2017, President Trump and his administration have taken a number of actions that arguably weaken America's public health infrastructure.

At the same time, the United States remains one of the world's great innovators. With 52 States and more than 89,000 local and city governments, the United States frequently functions as a social laboratory for social policies, and public health laws and practices. While constrained in some areas by its constitutional design, the United States remains a leader in global health: its influence and innovations in public health law cannot be ignored.

What can Australia learn from recent American experience with public health law and regulation? What are the good ideas? What should be avoided? How can Australian jurisdictions adapt the best American innovations and create an enabling legal and political environment for public health and wellbeing?
This seminar features presentations reviewing public health law and leadership in the United States, with particular reference to: communicable diseases and pandemic preparedness, non-communicable diseases, health care, injuries and global health leadership.

US public health and global health leadership (or not)Professor Lawrence Gostin, Linda and Timothy O'Neill Professor of Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law School, Washington DC, and Faculty Director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Prof. Gostin is the Director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law